‘Rusty’ Southport & Birkdale ready to take on title-chasing New Brighton

A COMBINATION of rearranged fixtures, bad weather and moveable turf means that Southport and Birkdale go into tomorrow's home game against title-challengers New Brighton having played just one match in the last month.

‘Rusty’ Southport & Birkdale ready to take on title-chasing New Brighton

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A COMBINATION of rearranged fixtures, bad weather and moveable turf means that Southport and Birkdale go into tomorrow's home game against title-challengers New Brighton having played just one match in the last month.

It is not ideal preparation for the season's final six weeks in which S&B play the top five sides in the Premier League plus Fleetwood Hesketh and Maghull, so it was encouraging for the Trafalgar Road groupies to see a good turn-out at Tuesday night's nets.

Tomorrow's opponents are already in excellent form.

Tim Watkins' side hammered Ormskirk by nine wickets at Rake Lane last Saturday, thus inflicting only the second league defeat of the season on Adam Waterhouse's powerful team.

Affable and candid off the field, Watkins is an uncompromising foe when battle is joined and S&B's players will need to be mentally prepared for a cricketing challenge spiced with a dollop of verbal provocation - especially if they are doing well.

In other words, their characters will be tested.

The selectors have picked a strong batting side for the game.

Peter Coverley's 72 for the seconds last week has earned him a recall, and it could be argued that all of Fletcher's players are capable of holding down a place in the top eight.

Whether their performances against New Brighton will justify such an optimistic assessment is another matter.

James Dixon's bowling has also seen him get a crack at first team cricket but the most unfortunate victim of Tuesday's meeting was Craig Todd, dropped to the seconds without doing anything wrong. His chance will surely come again.

The compensation for Todd and his team-mates is that S&B's second team has been one of the club's success stories in 2008.

Karl Skelton's side currently occupy fourth place in the Premier League and on Sunday they travel to Newton-le-Willows for a Chester Cup quarter-final.